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On Suckering In a New Generation of SpuddersFri Sep 16, 2016 1:40 am

On Suckering In a New Generation of Spudders

Yes... I realize it's a completely hilarious/original way to phrase it.

Rather than an introduction establishing that I don't think new spudders need to be suckered in, along with other wordy creations, it would be much better to just dive in, givin the limited space I have before the average 'Files reader simply hits the 'Newest Posts' link to the left and fires up MS Paint to draw a diagram of their freshest 6mm pneumatic idea.

Some of the older member's know, for instance, that they're looking at a new crowd every year... some of the things people complain about prove that spudding isn't dead! As long as there are sexually frustrated 16 year olds without a more destructive outlet, they will turn to flinging objects at high speeds at plywood and water jugs.

The thing is, we just need a new way to define this hobby. It's not people gluing together Latke style PVC combustions or sprinkler valve pneumatics anymore while worshipping Joel Suprise. It's the kid looking at a $200 USD nerf launcher for scenario paintball thinking that somebody, somewhere has built something like that from scratch before (they have!), or somebody choosing their second year's bulk of college courses, thinking that nobody could possibly enjoy Writing for Business (they don't!).

This forum is, unfortunately, not that easy to find. While you may say "It's on the first page when you google 'Spudguns'!", consider, however, that most people's internet exposure doesn't extend past https://www.facebook.com. It could (read should) be simply that people don't have the exposure to our community and are hacking it along themselves and posting their work to Instagram instead of USING THE DAMN UPLOADER.

Which of course brings us to...

Social Media - The Creative Black Hole

First, let's clarify: there is creativity on social media. Only thing is, it has to be liked/shared and spread like herpes before we see it.

On SpudFiles, we see every new project. And, no matter how "mundane" it may seem to you (what is an elitist? Correct, elitist it is for $200), it's their first project and they're obviously excited about it. For the most part, we are also good about congratulating and welcoming these members, and providing constructive criticism.

This simply doesn't happen in imgur.

What can we do about this?

The obvious answer is to advertise. But, recall that people's exposure to the web has shrunk significantly in the last several years.

Yes, unfortunately, (or maybe not), you can see where I'm going with this.

Get on social media, and ostracize yourself among your peers and family as "that guy"! It's fun, trust me. (Okay, don't, I barely use it other than using Facebook Messenger since I don't have service in this country).

Increasingly, we are seeing this more often on services like Instagram. Don't believe me? When's the last time a random person liked an image of yours, and they turned out to be a personal trainer, nutritionist, {insert budding occupation(alist) here}. Exposure on social media is how we drive people to Spudfiles.

In the Meantime

Stay busy!

Keep building things, and people will keep liking those things. It's true that we all have lives outside of SpudFiles. For instance, I'm not even in the United States anymore, and certainly don't have access to my tools. But, I should certainly be trying to continue my love for the hobby in whatever means I can (like writing this article!).

It has been a long time in the making, and constant tinkering over the past 3 days of this migration, but SpudFiles has finally upgraded!

What you should know-You should be able to login with your existing username/password as long as you've used the account at least once. Accounts never logged into up to 10/1/13 have been purged. If you seemed locked out or have other troubles accessing your account, out email me ADMIN [AT] SPUDFILES.COM with all information that you have.

-It will take some getting used to. Everything is moved around and works a bit different because this is newer software. Please don't hate on it right away, it can be hard to learn at first. If you have questions, ask!

-Several posts have broken signatures, image tags, etc. There are several reasons why, but the main one is that we used to allow limited HTML code which is no longer allowed. If you used HTML tags (things with < > instead of [ ]) you need to look through some of your posts and edit the HTML code out of them. They can be replaced with BB code using the buttons on the page. Our staff can do this as well and will on prominent posts.

-You have lots of new options in the User Panel, located towards the top or left as the "User Control Panel". You can set your country flag to represent your country! Look around these options, and please ensure your email address is valid.

-SpudBux are gone. It served it's purpose, however we have a replacement called the Reputation System where everyone will start out at 0. I will be retroactively adding some reputation for known users. This is kind of like a Karma system, you will build reputation power (to give rep) based on how long you've been registered, how many posts you have, how much power you've built up from good posts, etc. It's very dynamic and I believe it will promote healthy posts with good content in order to gain rep. You can see the details of this in the User Control Panel.

-We now have Nerf Gun sections, and other sections have been slightly tweaked. The Theories section merged with General Spud Cannon Related.

-Custom titles that were previously set have been lost. You can request this back with a PM to me. Custom titles will come with reputation.

-No more "thumbnail uploading" when making a post in the Project Showcase Database. The thumbnail instead is automatically generated from the first picture that is either linked or attached in the thread.